artist Statement
As a research-based, site-specific installation artist, I am interested in how a manufactured or created space can destabilize our customary expectations of and interactions with our environment. My investigations have led me to explore the symbiotic relationship between the human landscape and the natural environment through three areas of exploration affected by human meddling: botany, evolution, and geography.
Intrigued by the impact of global trade, patterns of consumer culture, and the aftermath of our consumption, I use the bi-products of our buy-product disposable society to create landscapes of plastics, paper, cardboard, and discarded building materials. With this work I hope to epitomize the omnipresence of humans in the manipulation of nature.
In our current “Post-Darwinian-Survivalist” era, where a species can no longer rely on evolution to determine the survival of the fittest as a means of guaranteeing the continuation of their species, animals need to take an active roll in their adaptation process. I ponder the potential zoological adaptations and physical mutations that may become necessary for a species to rapidly evolve in our rapidly changing interconnected world.
Mapping was initially developed as a means to understand the geography and the geology of our planet. That intention has changed to one that feeds the human urges to grow, to expand, and to occupy. I am intrigued how in our information-overloaded world, the abstracted data of a map can be critical to one person, while utterly useless to another, all the while having tremendous political, cultural, social and environmental implications.
artist bio
Hovey grew up in the Northeast Kingdom, a rural area in northern Vermont. There she developed an appreciation of the natural world and a respect for the environment. This is also where she learned many of the hand-craft and construction techniques that are present in her current installations and paintings.
After studying Computer Science at the University of Vermont, Hovey transferred to the School of Visual Arts in New York to study Graphic Design. While attending SVA, she was awarded the prestigious Bea Feitler Scholarship.
In 2002, after working many years as a professional designer, Hovey returned to study sculpture at San Francisco State University where she received her MFA in 2005. Hovey was nominated as the Art department’s Hood Recipient and graduated with honors.
Over the last several years, Hovey has exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally at institutions including the Terra Foundation and the Everson Museum. In 2012, Hovey installed a site-specific solo exhibition at the Telfair Museum.
Hovey’s wanderlust and art career have taken her on artist residencies throughout the United States and Europe, and to China. Hovey just returned from her second stay in South Africa. She combined her passions for cycling, art and animal rights. Hovey rode in a 9 day/950 km mountain bike race to raise monies for a rhino preservation group called 12 Hours. After the ride she joined the non-profit, educational group, RhinoArt to bring art, awareness and financial support to the education of youth in rural communities. Hovey concluded her stay at a UNESCO World Heritage site in Cradle of Humankind where she completed a new work about rhino poaching titled man-I-cure. The piece is in the permanent collection of the Nirox Foundation in Johannesburg.
Since her return from Africa, Hovey has been preparing for a solo exhibition,
karrie hovey : spaces (in) between, at the Tiburon Heritage and Arts Commission.
Hovey currently maintains a studio in the DogPatch in San Francisco. She is a
15 year resident of Mill Valley, CA.